US athletes’ doping tests published by Russian hackers, agency says

The World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed
Tuesday that hackers accessed a database of confidential medical data
and released the drug regimens of gymnast Simone Biles and three other
top US Olympians. The agency went on to say the Russian government was
behind the move.

The organization, which screens Olympic
athletes for performance-enhancing substances, said the attack was
carried out by "Fancy Bear," one of the same Russian
government-sponsored hacking groups that security experts say broke into Democratic National Committee servers
and made off with confidential documents. Fancy Bear members used a
technique known as spear phishing to gain access to the Anti-Doping
Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database through an account
that was created by the International Olympic Committee, the agency
said in a statement.

"WADA has been informed by law enforcement
authorities that these attacks are originating out of Russia," agency
Director General Olivier Niggli said in the statement that also named
Fancy Bear as the group. "Let it be known that these criminal acts are
greatly compromising the effort by the global anti-doping community to
re-establish trust in Russia further to the outcomes of the Agency’s
independent McLaren Investigation Report." The McLaren investigation
refers to an inquiry into allegations of Russian government-sponsored
doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The investigation has been a major
source of controversy between Russia and Olympics organizers.

The statement came shortly after the discovery of Fancy Bear,
a site that published medical reports belonging to Biles; Elena Delle
Donne, who led the US women's basketball team to a gold medal with a
perfect 6–0 record; and Serena and Venus Williams, two former winning US
Olympians in Tennis who were eliminated in the most recent Olympics
games. The leaked documents appeared to show that all four US athletes
tested positive for substances that are restricted by the International
Olympic Committee but were given medical exemptions.

According to the documents, Biles tested
positive for the psychostimulant methylphenidate and was also taking
amphetamine. Donne, meanwhile, took hydrocortisone, while Serena
Williams purportedly took oxycodone and hydromorphone, prednisone,
prednisolone, and methylprednisolone, and her sister Venus used to take
prednisone, prednisolone, triamcinolone, and formoterol. In a statement
issued to Newsweek Olympics
officials said none of the athletes singled out on the Fancy Bear
website had broken any rules. Those rules grant exemptions for the
therapeutic use of banned substances.

The Fancy Bear site used the documents to
challenge the performance of US athletes, who won 46 gold, 37 silver,
and 38 bronze medals, and the lack of impartiality of the International
Olympic Committee. One section of the Fancy Bear site stated:

After detailed studying of the
hacked WADA databases we figured out that dozens of American athletes
had tested positive. The Rio Olympic medalists regularly used illicit
strong drugs justified by certificates of approval for therapeutic use.
In other words they just got their licenses for doping. This is other
evidence that WADA and IOC's Medical and Scientific Department are
corrupt and deceitful.

The site claimed the leaked data was only "the tip of the iceberg" and hinted that more leaks may follow.

The Fancy Bear leak continues a trend that
started with the hack on the Democratic National Committee in which
potentially sensitive data is leaked, presumably in an attempt to
publicly discredit opponents. Tuesday's leak came after the majority of
Russia's track and field team was banned from this year's Olympics
following probes that found evidence of a government-run doping scheme
that spanned years.